I didn't think much about the Tabernacle Choir this week. The only news to really report is that the Choir received a fairly prestigious honor by being named as one of the Top 10 choirs in the world by the well respected BBC Music Magazine. You can read the article, HERE. I think the only other choir I knew on the list was the Choir of King's College--which goes to show how choir-knowledgeable I am! I look forward to checking out some YouTube videos of the other choirs just for fun.
The other news is that PBS/WGBH created a specific website just to highlight past Christmas concerts by the Tabernacle Choir. I was actually pretty impressed with the site. Normally when you're trying to look for videos of past Christmas concerts or any "extra" or "behind the scenes" videos, you have to sort of do a blind search and hope the hits you get are the ones you're really after. But if you go to this site and click on Watch link (near the top left), you'll be taken to an all-inclusive page that includes dozens of videos of each of the Christmas concerts from 2019 thru 2016 that are nicely organized. For the concerts prior to 2016, I'm not sure WGBH was involved so that's why there's no pre-2016 content. To see that content, you can go to the Choir's YouTube channel and then to the Christmas playlists and there's a variety of videos to watch, there.
Other than that, life for choir members goes on just as it does for many others these days. We wait for the pandemic to end, and while we wait, we use the time to work on hobbies, spend more time with family, pursue vocational or education interests, and support each other through social media posts and individual texts of encouragement and love.
Love and prayers to you all as you treasure the moments of joy and at the same time, work hard to combat the trials you're working through. Being a Lord of the Rings fan, I thought this dialogue between Sam and Frodo is especially applicable right now, so I'll leave you with that.
Until next time God be with you.
Frodo: "I can't do this, Sam."
Sam: "I know. It's all wrong. By rights we shouldn't even be here. But we are. It's like in the great stories, Mister Frodo. The ones that really mattered.
Full of darkness and danger they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy. How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened.
But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer.
Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something. Even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mister Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back only they didn't. Because they were holding on to something."
Frodo: "What are we holding on to, Sam?"
Sam: "That there's some good in this world, Mister Frodo. And it's worth fighting for."
